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Connecting 16 IP Cameras Through 4 POE Ports - April 09, 2013

Connecting 16 IP Cameras Through 4 POE Ports
By Christian M Gillman

Taking a break from my more generalized and broader based topics, I am going to discuss a great workaround that can help immensely with the Gen IV G4-NVR-P NVR (Network Video Recorder). This workaround will allow a user to use all 16 of their IP cameras over the NVRs 4 POE ports. It's not to say that this technique cannot be applied to other NVRs with built in POE's, but these steps are specific to this particular NVR.

When using the G4-NVR-P NVR each of the four PoE ports in the back are assigned to 4 different IP addresses within the NVRs personal network. These IP address use the default gateway of 10.1.1.1 and the IP addresses start at 10.1.1.65 and go through.68. Port 1 is assigned.65 and port 2.66 and so on and so forth. These 4 addresses are hard coded into the box and cannot be reset.

Additionally Gen IV IP cameras are coded so that if they are inserted into these ports then they will have their standard 192.168.1.108 address overwritten in favor of these IP addresses. This would make it seem that no more than 4 IP cameras can be used between these 4 PoE ports, this however is not true with a bit of ingenuity and work.

Get A PoE Switch

Depending on how many IP cameras you have on the system (up to 16) you can determine whether you will want 2 8-port PoE switches or 1 16-port PoE switch. I would recommend 2 8-port PoEs as it will help reduce the stress on each port. For the purpose of this article we will assume 2 8-port PoEs and proceed regarding that type of setup.

Preparing Your IP Cameras

To begin with you will want to install 2 IP cameras directly into the 3rd and fourth PoE ports on the NVR. These will be assigned and configured to the.67 and.68 IP addresses automatically. This is the easy step, now comes the tedious part.

Next you are going to assign brand new IP addresses to each of your remaining IP cameras. To do this you will connect them one at a time to your network and reset both the IP address and the default gateway. This has to be done one at a time so as to avoid IP conflicts between cameras as they're usually set to the same default address.

To change the settings you will need to login to the cameras from your computer and do so manually. To login to the IP camera you will need to know its current IP address, this is usually 192.168.1.108 for Gen IV, but you can consult the manual for other brands. Once you've logged in you will most likely need to enter a password and user name (generally admin/admin). Finally when that's all taken care of you will want to navigate to the setup and network section of your IP camera. It is in here that you will change your IP address to a 10.1.1.?? address, I would suggest setting it at.69 and then each subsequent camera at the next number up (do not set any of them to.65 -.68). Next you will change the default gateway of the camera to 10.1.1.1.

NOTE: After you've changed these settings, if there is a checkbox in the settings asking to enable
ARP/Ping assigning or something along these lines, Make sure it is UNCHECKED, or else this
configuration will not work!

You will now need to unplug the first camera you did this with and go through each and every other IP camera that you have left and do the same, while making sure to assign each of them their own unique IP address. You may want to take notes or mark which camera is assigned to which IP address during this process.

When this is all said and done you will take the IP cameras and plug 6 of them into each PoE switch (remember 2 cameras are already setup on the NVR). You will next plug both PoE switches into port 1 and two of the PoE ports on the NVR. Now comes the next tedious part.

You will need to login to your NVR and go to the remote device menu. It is in here that you will manually add each of your additional IP cameras. When doing this make sure all of them are set to "Private" under the manufacturer setting, and then put in the new IP address. After you've done that let the NVR find and detect the camera. As long as this is successful you can go about doing the same for each additional camera. By the end of it all you will now have all 16 IP cameras operating through only 4 PoE ports on the NVR.

It should be noted that depending on the manufacturer of you IP camera you may have to adjust a couple other settings when manually adding the cameras. Settings such as username or password for example.

Benefits

There are 2 key benefits to setting up your network surveillance system this way. The first and foremost is the lessening of strain on your main home or business network by only technically having 1 piece of surveillance equipment connected to it (your NVR). The second benefit is that of security, as there is only 1 access point to your IP cameras, and that is through the NVR; this is much more beneficial than having multiple cameras on the network, all with their own access points.

Lastly I will note once again that this is an example for the G4-NVR-P NVR and not meant for other NVRs; however this same type of strategy may be able to be applied to other NVRs, but it may take some tweaking depending on the internal network configuration of your specific NVR.

Christian M Gillman has worked in the surveillance industry for over 7 years. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, learn more about surveillance, and find great products at http://www.cu1.com